The Beltway Bubble is like walking through Alice's Looking Glass: Though curiously familiar, no one acts as one would expect and what is unquestionably real on the other side is inverted from the inside. Inside the Beltway, there is no such thing as rabid partisan obstruction on the part of Republicans. Inside the Beltway, the magical ponies line up, waiting to be dispersed by the Unitary Executive Obama, without the interference of the Congress.
Peggy Noonan is the ultimate insider. She, of the pursed lips and meaningful sidelong glances, wants you to know that it's not the Republican pledge to make Obama a one-term president at all costs that's at issue....it's Obama's leadership.
NOONAN: A leader leads. A leader leads. Part of the president’s problem is that he has never, from day one, been able to really pull in bipartisan support. Either make Republicans afraid of him, or want to follow him. He’s never been able to do it. Part of the reason people are talking about Chris Christie is that he’s in a Democratic state--he’s a Republican governor—but he has made progress on deficits, spending, pensions, property taxes, with a Democratic legislature. It’s never an excuse that washes, to say, oh, the other team, the other party are bad guys, they wouldn’t follow me. If you’re a leader, you make them…
Right....all the blame lies entirely with Obama. Nothing else washes. The Republicans would be completely willing to support the president if only he was different. He hasn't reached out to them at all. He hasn't incorporated Republican ideas and demands into everything he's tried to pass. He hasn't bent over backward to reach out to Republicans over and over and over. And I hate to break this to Nooners, but for as much as the eocnomy does suck, the Obama administration *has* made progress economically as well.
And for cryin' out loud, citing Chris Christie's ability to pass legislation with a Democratic congress in New Jersey both misses and makes the point. Elected Democrats don't put party over country (or state). Democrats will negotiate and work with the opposing party. Republicans won't. Full stop.
But that isn't how it works through the looking glass, does it, Peggy?
